Apex court dismisses labourer’s appeal to reduce jail term for girlfriend’s murder

 

The three-member Federal Court panel upheld the prison sentence and 12 strokes of the cane imposed on Masud Rana.

PUTRAJAYA: 

The Federal Court today dismissed the appeal of a Bangladeshi man who sought to reduce his 35-year prison sentence for the murder of his Filipino girlfriend.

The three-member panel – chaired by Court of Appeal president Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim, alongside Federal Court judges Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal and Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil – upheld the prison sentence and 12 strokes of the cane imposed on Masud Rana.

There is no merit in this appeal. We find the sentence passed by the Court of Appeal is adequate and not manifestly excessive,

 said Abang Iskandar.

On Sept 27, 2023, the Court of Appeal commuted Masud’s death sentence to 35 years’ imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane for killing Condo Liezyl Ponce in her rented room on Jalan Beladau 26, Taman Puteri Wangsa, Ulu Tiram, Johor Bahru, between 4am and 6.40am, on Dec 23, 2016.

Masud’s court-appointed counsel Bustaman Menon Abdul Hamid Menon contended that the murder occurred after a fight between the couple, describing it as a crime of passion fuelled by alcohol and jealousy.

Bustaman also argued the sentence was manifestly excessive and that the killing was not premeditated.

Deputy public prosecutor Zulkipli Abdullah countered that the 35-year prison term was an adequate sentence considering the brutal nature of the crime, emphasising that the deceased sustained 40 incisions, several of which penetrated her skull.

The appeal against the sentence reminds me of the idiom ‘give them an inch and they’ll take a mile’. He should be grateful his death sentence was commuted to a custodial sentence,

 he said.

Masud, a 40-year-old labourer, was found guilty by the High Court on Oct 10, 2019, of killing his 28-year-old girlfriend.

He withdrew his appeal against the murder conviction but continued to challenge his death sentence in light of the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023. - FMT